Reviews

The Love Con by Seressia Glass

Only show reviews with written explanations

zeeshay's review

4.0

Cute read! Love a cute romance book. It follows the basic can’t tell them how I feel type romance because the what if’s.
Some of the “steamy” parts made me laugh/cringe but it’s still a fun read.

chaos2628's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

genhuggins's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

lilysbooks's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

voodoo_x_valentine's review

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

4/5 Stars

Summary:
Kenya Davenport has been competing in a cosplay competition called Cosplay or No Way and the audience joins her for the final round. When prompted on national TV Kenya is asked to list a partner and–from the pressure of a provoking judge–she announces that not only will her best friend Cam be her partner but that he is also her boyfriend. *surprise!* Throughout the novel we experience a fake dating trope with friends to lovers along the way.

Overall thoughts:
Overall I LOVED this novel. I picked it up for the cute cover and JesseTheReader’s recommendation but kept reading for the relationships, drama, and competition. Often times I find myself struggling to enjoy the friends to lovers trope and think that this was the first time I was genuinely invested in everything going on. I wanted to see them end up together, I was proud of seeing them both respect each other’s boundaries but still navigate the awkward sexual/romantic tension, and most of all, I loved seeing their love. Going into this I think I was comparing it a bit to Geekerella by Ashley Poston (100000/5 stars, go read it now if you haven’t already) and was pleasantly surprised that this felt a bit like an adult version of it. I would love for another book that described the Cosplay or No Way competition more in depth and would really truly have liked to see Rebecca get what was coming to her, but overall this is a fun read that is more than just surface level as we see so many different struggles Kenya must overcome.
Just a sidenote: I did audiobook this novel and the narrator was fantastic. Highly recommend if you’re looking for an audiobook.

What I loved:
Kenya made the smart decisions!
SOOOOO often I feel like characters just make stupid decisions for the sake of plot and drama, but here she actually put thought and effort into the relationship and struggles
Kenya’s relationship with her parents
I feel like it’s rare that we actually see a relationship with parents in novels, and loved how this one was written. It makes sense that STEM parents often push their children in a similar direction as they want what they think is best for them
Even though there was a lot of conflict between Kenya and her parents, it was clear they still had a very strong relationship as she chose to go to them after
Character Decisions
Kenya is often struggling with her own emotions as she feels she can’t let herself be seen as the angry or aggressive black woman. To anyone who isn’t in Kenya’s shoes on a daily basis (ie, someone of different race or gender) these thoughts wouldn’t even occure to them but Seressia did an incredible job of conveying these struggles to her audience without overwhelming or lecturing her readers. I was so proud of how Kenya handled every situation, especially the one after her gauntlet broke, where even when she took off her earrings she kept herself composed.
It is so common that I get annoyed with characters for making obviously poor decisions. Some may argue that there is a miscommunication trope between Kenya and Cam, but I would debate that it actually makes sense for her to hide her family issues from everyone. She as a character has been taught to keep everything to herself to resolve, she doesn’t want to add any more issues for Cam, and she is determined to achieve her dream on her own works.
Ending (obviously spoilers)
I don’t have a lot to say as this is just the perfect ending I could imagine but I LOVED THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND RELATIONSHIP GOALS.

What was meh:
The competition itself
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that we jumped right into the final round, but I wish we had gotten to learn a bit more about the previous rounds and contestants.
Also, I don’t understand the scoring system. In the end it says that the judges each make up 33% of the total score, but the voters also have a say? I feel like it would have made more sense to me if I had a better understanding of how the system worked. Did she need to work to win over the audience? Or did it only matter what the judges thought really? From our perspective it sounded like she had won over the audience and majority of judges, so it didn’t make sense (SPOILER!) for her to lose…otherwise I loved the competition element

What I wanted more of:
GEEK stuff
The marketing for this novel made it sound like our main characters were full on geeks yet instead of seeing much geekery, we really just repeatedly got the lines “I love movies, books, anime…” or something like that. I really wanted to hear more about what specific ones created this bond between her and Cam. In the end we got a little more with the last chapter, I just felt like I was constantly left wanting more here as the only major name dropping was with Marvel.